Super-pod at Battleship

One of the frustrations of a sensitive hydrophone is that any abrasion of the cable against the hull of the boat results in quite a bit of noise. You can hear some of that in the last third of the recording, below. I’m crafting a fleece-padded outrigger in an attempt to mitigate this.

As I mentioned in your planning phases, many hydrophones are prone to it, and the CRT ones are particularly sensitive. During Beam Reach programs, we’ve had good luck making a mini-davit and then suspending the cable via an elastic cord (piece of bungee cable). You can see a photo of one ineration here.

I liked this galvanized pipe “L” version lashed to a stanchion as you could “pivot” it inboard during transits… PVC works well, too, but it flexes a bit when a lot of cable is out. In any case, the key is to keep the design as simple as possible! (Even fleece can rub and generate noise…)